UK’s NICE Updates Drug Guidance For RA Patients; Approves New RA Drug

The UK's Telegraph (8/25, Smith) reports that the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) "has said NHS patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can move from one drug to the next as each one stops working for them." Up until now, "there had been restrictions on switching between drugs, and the 40,000 people with the condition were left without any effective treatments once their existing medication stopped working."

In addition, NICE has approved a new drug called RoActemra (tocilizumab) to be used by RA patients when all other drugs tried "have failed or cannot be tolerated." Dow Jones Newswire (8/25, Stovall) also covers the story.